You could say I have a certain empathy for people with disabilities. That’s why, based on some of the publicity surrounding the movie “You Before Me,” I think this is one I will not see.

The film centers on a young man who is a quadriplegic as the result of an accident, effectively ending life as he knew it. In his new life, he takes on a caregiver, and in true Hollywood style, they fall in love.

It’s not much of a spoiler when the trailer of the movie and all of its pre-publicity lead us to the ending. Apparently, the disabled young man has to decide if he will live for his love or commit suicide. His newfound love has a decision to make. She can convince him that life is worth living, or she can support his state of mind that life is not worth living due to his disability and help him end it all. We can guess how it ends.

News reports are that that some of the able-bodied movie critics walked out of the screening crying, moved by the gloominess of it all.

That’s a summary of what I know based on the coverage and reviews I’ve seen, and for me that’s enough. Enough to determine that I don’t want to see this movie because I just don’t find the subject matter entertaining (even if it is billed a romantic comedy, which it is). But perhaps even more importantly, I don’t like the message it sends or the dangerous assumptions it makes.

At the core of this film is the question: Is life worth living if it is sometimes far less than perfect?

For most of us, there’s something inside that responds adamantly, “Yes!” It’s called our survival mechanism. But some with disabilities may be on the fence.

I’d hate to think of what might happen if a few with disabilities watched a film like this, and in some way it helped them suppress their own survival instincts.

This is not to say that all entertainment should be hopelessly idealistic. But the coverage surrounding this film and others like it indicates that Hollywood is well along the path of embracing, if not pushing a worldview that undermines the very core of all of the systems, programs and support infrastructure that serves millions of people who have some sort of disability.

It tells them, their lives are not as valuable as others. That they and the world might be better off if they were not here. Perhaps more scarily, that those closest to them would be better of if they were not here. That is some serious stuff. To be sure, it’s not entertaining. It’s not escapism, and it’s not hypothetical.

In the public relations profession, at some point we have to decide if we can support a message on a personal level, and if we cannot then we cannot do the PR project justice.

Often as not, our criteria is based on our own personal concerns and values. Will our work support delivery of a message that is beneficial to or harmful to society? For this reason, not only could I not watch this movie, but I’d not take an assignment that would endorse the philosophical basis for a movie like this.

Instead, I prefer the uplifting statement made by the very real and not fictional Katie Breland on her wedding day. She is paralyzed, but she made a much different choice than the make-believe characters in a novel or a movie. Her story may bring a tear to your eye, but I can assure you it will be a happy one.

It’s no longer that unusual to see a parent, at wit’s end, turn to the Internet or social media to make a point to a child. The latest is a case where a Florida father put his son’s car for sale on Craigslist after the father discovered his son was missing work and smoking pot in the car.

While not completely unheard of, stories like this are still rare enough to garner national headlines and go viral on social media. The narrative here is pretty predictable. Thousands of fellow parents cheer on the dad for “taking a stand.”

On the flip side, the son is likely to have his own interpretation of events, and so will the boy’s friends, his wider social circle and others in his world.

From a parenting point of view, it’s valid to wonder whether such an extreme measure will have the desired effect or if it will backfire. In today’s social media climate, it’s feasible for a teenager to find himself at the center of a storm like this and come out with more notoriety and respect among his peers (more emboldened, not less) than before.

At the same time, events like this can have a long-term effect on the father-son relationship.

It’s these considerations that provide communications lessons for those of us who make a living in the business of public relations.

Any experienced and even semi-reasonable manager knows that public shaming can bring with it serious consequences. It can have a lasting effect on the employee or employees directly involved. It can send a message to other employees that could create barriers to relationship-building. Should this management style become known outside of the workplace, customers, vendors and others could make value judgements that are not to the benefit of the company. Not to mention exposure to possible litigation.

That’s why we rarely see an employee made a spectacle in so obvious a fashion. That’s not to say shaming doesn’t happen in less obvious ways.

Let’s go with the concept of crowdsourcing. In the workplace, crowdsourcing is often used to spread work and responsibility across a larger swath of the work force to accomplish a task. The concept may not be new, but the trendiness of the term suggests the increased popularity of tapping an undefined “crowd” instead of trusting the individual or smaller team trained and assigned the specific responsibility to tackle a particular kind of challenge.

To be sure, crowdsourcing can be used very effectively under the right circumstances. Thanks to newer technologies and management tools, the concept of “two heads are better than one” can be scaled in power and effectiveness to unprecedented levels. But as with anything, crowdsourcing can be a crutch for some managers.

Imagine a military commander telling a Special Forces unit to stand down in preparation for a critical search and rescue operation while they all wait for the results of a crowdsourcing effort before making any decisions.

In other words, when some managers turn to “the crowd,” they risk disenfranchising the very specialists or experts they’ve originally tabbed to maintain ongoing responsibility for dealing with certain issues.

The lesson for internal communicators and PR pros is not to automatically assume that the current trend towards asking the crowd to solve certain problems will not have lingering effects.

Just like the father who uses the Internet to make a point, a manager who instinctively turns to the crowd is likely to have work to do in mending some very important one-on-one relationships.

The topic came up recently among a bunch of professional communicators and PR people, many of whom get paid quite a bit to help clients establish their social media presence.

The issue at hand was social media profiles and how “that guy” describes himself. The discussion centered on how some men and women get so self-absorbed in their personal branding efforts that they create profile descriptors that are more likely to turn people away than make visitors actually want to connect.

So, if your goal is for people to like you enough to want to follow you and connect, maybe even engage, here are some words, terms and phrases to avoid:

“Visionary” (Let others call you this, it backfires when you use this word to describe yourself.)

“Prophet” (Unless there’s a couple of pages in the bible devoted to you, it might be best to find another word.)

“Activist for humanity” (Humanity says, “thanks, but we’re good.”)

“Success addict” (There’s a cure for that, it’s called failure.)

“Passionate influencer” (aka “Smotherer.”)

“Mentor” (Let the people you mentor call you by this title, then it’s believable.)

“Charismatic leader” (This is a term reserved for the likes of JFK, MLK [in a positive way] and cult leaders [in a negative way]. Which one describes you? I know, probably none, which is why it’s best to avoid this.)

“Dream maker” (Most self-help books continue to describe dreams as our own to make, and make come true. We kind of know you don’t have the inside track on this so it’s not worth saying.)

“Futurist” (Unless you actually wrote a book on the future, you’re just like the rest of us when it comes to the future.)

“Wealth whisperer” (Wealth wants you to speak up. It can’t hear you.)

Perhaps the best approach is to find a concise way to describe yourself to someone who either knows you already or will come to know you warts and all. Then when you develop your profile for Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, just be true to yourself and them.

I once had a client which had an internal mantra that was usually only visible sporadically in company offices, or buried in the content of internal company newsletters. It was the acronym, “EZTDBW.”

It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?

It stood for the words, “Easy To Do Business With.” In spite of its poor grammar, the term and its acronym was the heart of a very successful and well-loved company.

“Easy to do business with.”

It wasn’t an ad slogan. It wasn’t on the side of the company’s vehicles or plastered throughout company facilities on banners and posters. I first noticed it on the desk of one company manager in the form of a 1950s-style desk name plate. His name wasn’t on the plate. It was the EZTDBW acronym stenciled in an everyday Arial font, white on faux wood grain.

“What’s that mean?,” I asked.

My client told me it’s their company philosophy. Everyone in the company, from the CEO to the loading dock workers are expected to do everything possible, every day to make their company “easy to do business with.” Internally, everyone in the organization was expected to make working with each other “easy to do business with.” This was their one uncompromising rule.

It was that simple and that brilliant, mainly because the organization lived it.

It didn’t matter that the acronym wasn’t branded in ways we’re used to seeing – four-color posters, professional graphics, design and photography, online pages and groups, or a tie-in to an external marketing campaign. These are all reliable, effective and can be required tools of the branding trade.

But what this company understood was that before all of that, it had to be committed to putting quality service, responsiveness and flexibility. Its premise was that if it could do this with consistency, it could build and maintain a strong work force and an infrastructure that ensured client satisfaction to drive business growth. It did all of that and more.

The company was unique in its sector, defying industry norms in the way it managed its work force and served its customers. As a result, it became a leader for its innovation, service quality and growth.

The lessons for me had mostly to do with where true branding begins. It starts with an organization’s operating philosophy and its discipline in staying true to that philosophy. To build the brand, the philosophy had to be integrated into everything the organization did without exception.

The customer had to see it and feel it, even if not aware of the actual words or acronyms used to coalesce the work force behind the vision. Other constituents and stakeholders had to also see the benefits. Internally, employees had to see the philosophy as a genuine commitment to everyone and everything the organization touched.

For any organization, that is where branding begins. From there, all graphic identity, marketing, internal communications, online and digital, external marketing, investor relations programs must reinforce this brand. All must work together to bring that philosophy to life – real, strong and powerful.

For a strong brand, a strong operating philosophy is at the core, and it must drive all efforts to define that brand for all internal and external stakeholders.

This past week, another class of PR majors graduated from their respective colleges and are now doing their best to transition into the work force, or as their parents like to call it, “the real world.”

As has been the case for decades, regardless of generational label, some will do better than others. Millennial graduates who succeed will more than likely do the same things that successful Gen-X graduates and Baby Boomer graduates did.

On the other hand, some graduates will have relied only on their coursework to prepare them for a career in public relations, and if they did they are already behind. Unfortunately, too many still receive their diplomas without having had a PR internship, which is often the first way to get practical communications experience and exposure to the way things really get done.

Yes, they took all of the requisite communications courses (and probably not enough on journalistic writing). Yes, they took a semester in Europe. And yes, they are digital natives, meaning social media is second nature to them. Their resumes are filled with mentions of how they served on campus organization committees and dance marathons, but no matter how those experiences make the graduates feel about themselves and their public relations talents, those experiences more often than not did not teach undergraduates how to work within standing organizations and companies with their own protocols, processes and missions.

In short, what college did not teach these PR graduates is what it could not teach – the soft skills of PR. So what are they?

The Simple Things– Be on time for work, be early for every meeting, listen before speaking, and sometimes do not speak, especially when you disagree or think you know better. Wait for the right time and the right place. Know that when you call off or miss a meeting, you may miss an opportunity. Accept the consequences of your actions. Don’t be known as a complainer. Dress the part of who you want to be. Don’t stay after work for show, it’s obvious. Don’t leave important work unfinished at the end of the regular work day. That’s just as obvious.

Know that the Workplace is not a Democracy– Whether it’s a large company, PR agency, or a small nonprofit organization, management hierarchy requires a chain of command. This is for communication, decision-making and accountabilities. While various organizations and managers may have a wide range of styles, some more people-friendly than others, all adhere to the assumption that the boss’s decision (or the client’s decision) is final. There is no second-guessing the decision-maker once he or she has made that decision. Your only choice is whether you will meet those expectations or not.

Don’t Take Criticism Personally– One of the most difficult transitions new PR hires often make is taking criticism personally. In fact, the criticism you get may be very personal in every way but one – context. You may be told about your appearance, your energy level, your listening skills, your writing skills or your analytical skills. All are almost inseparable from your personal style, so for that reason, it can feel very personal. But the main thing is to know that all of it is coming your way in the context of how it affects your work. What you are really being told is that the basis for all criticism is to get you to modify your approach to be more effective as a professional and within the organization. Rather than take the criticism personally, embrace it as an opportunity for change and self-improvement. Once you do that, future criticism won’t have the same sting, and you’ll probably find you receive less of it.

Don’t Expect Anything– Once you join a company or PR firm as an employee, it’s not up to that organization to meet your expectations. It’s the other way around. It’s up to you to meet the expectations of your organization’s customers, donors, managers, other employees and other constituents. If you work in PR or in the communications function, you must be effective at media relations and other disciplines. Don’t expect recognition or praise. Don’t expect a promotion simply because you have a year’s more experience than the next person. The PR business is merit-based, meaning you have to earn praise, recognition and promotions. And even then, they may not come when you think you deserve them most. Learn how the organization works and follow the unsaid rules. Be persistent. Be patient. Be smart. Focus on delivering quality work and results. Put the client’s needs first. That’s how you’ll get what you want and what you think you deserve.

This year will be the seventh Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade where I’ve handled PR and communications, and it’s a labor of love, to be sure.

Over the past seven years, I’ve been reminded of something we often preach in communications. “Let’s get back to the core values of the brand.”

Brands all over have a tendency to stray from their roots, particularly as they grow in popularity. The growth takes on a life of its own. The brand evolves with its appeal. Consumers or the community at large come to redefine the brand on their own terms.

St. Patrick’s Day is a good example of this. For many, particularly in America, St. Patrick’s Day is all about the wearin’ o’ the green and a party. All too often, the holiday plays upon a negative stereotype of the Irish that is unapologetically perpetuated on T-shirts, buttons and hats sold in stores from coast to coast.

So, it is with this in mind, that I thought now might be a good time to revisit the core values of the St. Patrick’s Day brand, simply by learning a little more about the man who started it all. Saint Patrick Himself.

At 16, he was abducted from his home in Scotland and trafficked to pagan Ireland to be a slave in 406 A.D.

He worked as a shepherd slave, and it was during this time, he became a devout Christian.

When he was 22 years old, Patrick, or Padraig as he was known, escaped his captivity. He traveled 200 miles on foot to the Irish coast, and then made his way home by boat. Once home, he became a student of his faith.

At one point, Patrick said he had a dream where God told him to return to the land where he was a slave to serve the people in a new way.

Patrick returned to Ireland and spent the rest of his life there, preaching the Christian Word to the people.

As a result, thousands of Irish people became Christians. More than 1,000 Christian clerics were trained. Over 700 churches were established. In the process, Patrick, a former slave, became one of the world’s first outspoken critics of slavery.

His words: “Before I was a slave I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and Jesus came and in His compassion raised me up and exalted me very high and placed me on top of the wall.”

The Ireland of St. Patrick was a land of oppressed peoples, and he gave them hope. Over the centuries, his story and his example have been synonymous with hope and faith. That is the Saint Patrick brand.

It is no wonder then, that even today in a sea of Kelly green, parades and floats somehow that part of the brand has survived. St. Patrick’s Day is a happy day, a day of hope and promise.

How we celebrate it is up to each of us, but the beauty of it is we are unshackled in how we do it. And the “brand” lives on. Erin Go Bragh.

A doctor once explained to me the reason they call his work the “medical arts” and not “medical science.” He explained that while science plays a huge role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, at the end of the day it was his call, or that of a medical team on what to do with all the information they receive. And that, he said is an art not a science.

That’s a pretty simple way to address something happening with growing frequency in the PR business. We have a growing number of people who want to advance the notion that we are scientists or technicians in communication as opposed to artisans.

They like to hinge our profession’s reputation on metrics, algorithms and quantitative measures that they argue demonstrates “engagement.” Quite often, I agree at the tactical level. But to blindly go down this path is to ignore the almost unavoidable in our business. The field of public relations is about relationships, and human relationships have a tendency to defy the scientific method. Inevitably, there is the exception, which quite often is the rule.

Case in point. Not long ago, I was working on a project that targeted investors. In the course of the planning process, we did what we almost always do at that stage. We identified “key stakeholders,” among them employees.

PR people love to create matrixes, tables and charts that illustrate our “targeted audiences” or “key stakeholders.” Sometimes we match them up with their most pressing concerns and key messages.

But here is where the silos can break down, turning our version of communications science into the art of communication.

All too often, we try to draw hard lines and make conclusions on the differences between investors and employees. But when you think about it, who are your most invested stakeholders? Employees would have to be at or near the top of the list.

To be sure, there is a difference between an employee as shareholder, and an employee as investor. The employee shareholder has a financial stake in addition to his or her career commitment to the company. But the employee as an investor, well, that’s just about every one of them.

Think about it. You have an employee who spends more time at your workplace than she does with her own family. She made a life-changing commitment when she chose to come work for you. And in many situations she has made a commitment of years of her life to help advance the interests of the company. If that’s not an investor then what is?

So that brings us back to the art of communication and how to deal with it. How do we communicate to shareholders on their terms, employees on their terms, and somehow find the middle ground between both as investors?

The answer may be in the language we use and the self-interests we identify. Both shareholders and employees have made some sort of sacrifice for the betterment of the organization. Both seek an eventual return on that investment.

Shareholders seek immediate and long-term financial return on investment (ROI) in the form of dividends, stock appreciation and monetary gains. The language we use to demonstrate corporate performance is delivered in these very specific terms.

Employees seek immediate and long-term financial rewards in the form of pay, bonuses, raises, benefits and promotions. But they want more. They want to know their investment is secure, that their jobs are safe, that their work environment is safe, that they will be treated with respect. They want to know that the organization to which they belong is doing things the right way, ethically, because they know that says something about them. In their minds, all of this is ROI.

So when you talk to employees, as important as it is to speak in sincere and genuine platitudes about respect, recognition and value of the person, remember that it’s equally important to quantify and substantiate your messaging. Don’t shy away from demonstrating to employees, in the same fashion to investors, just how strong your organization is, why its market share is important to them, and how customer trends and tastes can affect the future of the company. Be sure to explain what management is doing about it, how it is going about it, and the important role that each employee will play in carrying out this vision and mission.

Use data, but not just data. Put it in relatable terms. Bring it home to your employees. Use examples and stories. In short, involve your employees in the process to create and build value in the company. In the end, you want more than just employee engagement as measured quantitatively. You want your employees to have a sense of ownership and pride in the organization in which they’ve invested so much.

If you’ve watched television in Pittsburgh for any length of time, chances are pretty good you’re familiar with Bill Flanagan. These days you’ll find him on WPXI-TV on Sundays as producer and host of Our Region’s Business, a Sunday morning business affairs program. Many people may know Bill for his many years as a reporter for KDKA Television.

Bill is the kind of guy that when you see him on TV you feel like you already know him. He’s a buddy. He has that Pittsburgh friendliness and a demeanor that seems to put his guests at ease talking about the things of which they are most passionate, usually their work.

Our Region’s Business is co-produced by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and WPXI-TV, and in their own words, the program “aims to play a positive role in the Pittsburgh region by providing business news, information and commentary in a lively and entertaining format.”

On any given Sunday morning, and now at other times on WPXI’s cable station PCNC, you’ll see Bill talking to entrepreneurs, business and civic leaders about topical issues and developments that involve businesses from emerging start-ups to some of the region’s Fortune 500 companies. They talk about issues and challenges – policy matters that influence the economic climate and quality of life in the area.

The show has a solid following. It is with this in mind, we asked Bill a question that may shed some light on why and how the program could be a fit for anyone with a compelling story to tell the region: What is the driver behind Our Region’s Business?

“Our Region’s Business takes a relatively broad view of the impact business has on our region, so we can cover capital investment, finance, job creation, management strategies, economic development, and business climate, all within the context of what’s happening within the regional, national and global economies,” Bill told us. “We like to feature individuals who are having an impact on our region through business activities, whether they are entrepreneurs, innovators, managers or workers, so guests will run the gamut from CEOs to blue collar workers. We cover both for- and not-for-profit organizations, although in the nonprofit space we tend to focus less on social services and more on ‘eds and meds’ and cultural organizations. We only do politics and policy when they affect the region’s economic climate in some way. ‘Our region’ is always the filter — unless the story connects with and affects the future of our region we probably won’t do it. Even where personal finance topics are concerned, we always interview somebody local, not a generic national expert. The idea is to showcase how business shapes our region, economically, culturally, and philanthropically.”

Featured Guests

The program seeks guests who can talk about issues and developments that affect the region in some way. As Bill says, “the more direct the impact the better. We focus on guests who are decision-makers, whether they are innovators, entrepreneurs, or private sector for-profit or not-profit leaders. We strive for C-level guests and in general don’t feature communications or PR people. We do feature elected officials from time to time, but it’s usually in the context of some event, regulation, policy or legislation that will affect the ability of for- and not-for-profit employers in the region to be more successful.”

The audience for the program is “decision-makers, business owners and managers, both senior and middle management, people who run organizations, and entrepreneurs.”

From the Board Room to the Deli Counter

“I’ve been stopped on the street by CEOs and in the supermarket by the woman behind the deli counter who also watches the show. What all of them have in common is a strong interest in where the region is and where it’s headed and how they might be able to benefit or contribute to its success. They are definitely interested in our region – Pittsburgh – or they wouldn’t be watching the program.”

From Bill’s perspective, the program is integral to his work at the Allegheny Conference.

“My responsibilities cover three big areas – overall development, fundraising and membership for the conference; strategic communications oversight, with organizational and regional brand and image aspects; and partnerships with other organizations around improving perceptions of the region. The program helps in all respects. It’s one of the most powerful communication channels the Conference has to highlight the issues that we believe are critical to the region’s future and it provides time to talk about them – at least more time than would be available on the evening news. The ability to stream our video online and on-demand expands our reach. Our mission is to improve the economy and quality of life of the Pittsburgh region and Our Region’s Business helps us to achieve those goals.”

Bill notes that the program, which has been sponsored by PNC Bank for the past 25 years, is uncommon on commercial television.

“I don’t think there are many like it on local, commercial TV in the United States. In other markets similar programs associated with a chamber of commerce or membership organization might be on cable or simply online. The partnership with WPXI-TV is unusual as well. It helps to make the program more balanced and broadly representative of ‘our regions’ business’ – not a business program in the traditional sense.”

Our Region’s Business airs on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. on WPXI-TV and is rebroadcast on PCNC-TV at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. that day, and 3:30 p.m. on the subsequent Monday.

Every year is a year of anniversaries. Not one passes without some event of historical of social significance taking place. We tend to like anniversaries with round numbers best, and usually, but not always in increments of ten – 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th and 50th. When it comes to 100th anniversaries we have special designations, like “Centennial” or “Centenary.”

If the commemorative event is of unprecedented and relatively recent significance, like September 11th, the anniversary doesn’t need to be an every-ten-year-thing to matter. Every year matters.

In the PR business, we often center some of our work on an anniversary. Too often, the anniversary has what we call a “weak hook” because the anniversary itself may only matter to a handful of people.

And in an era where news travels at the speed of light to smart phones everywhere, yesterday’s news can be seen as ancient history and irrelevant. A flood of information on new events has quickly put that news into the past.

Case in point, if a furniture store celebrates its 25th anniversary, that won’t matter to anyone but the owners, so trying to draw attention to the milestone in itself is tough sledding. But if the store owner of the store decides to celebrate the 25th anniversary by walking or better yet, running, 25 miles for a charity, that could get some attention from a local newspaper.

There is no rule of thumb on this but chances are, if you want an anniversary to matter in a public relations sense, you have to think beyond what the event means to you, and more in terms of what it could or should mean to others. That may take the creation of an entirely new initiative, project or event that makes the anniversary relevant and current.

To be sure, not all anniversaries are celebratory. In fact, some of our most important ones are very somber and serious but very worthy of remembering.

So, as we proceed with full force into 2016, here are a few anniversaries that someone may want you to know about:

January 16th is the 25th anniversary of when the U.S. and 27 allies attacked Iraq for occupying Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm commenced the next day.

January 28th marks the 30th anniversary of the NASA Challenger Space Shuttle exploding right after launch. Aboard the Shuttle for that mission was a school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire named Sharon Christa McCauliffe, slated for the mission to become the “First Teacher in Space.”

January 28th is the 20th anniversary of Super Bowl XXX where the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17 in Tempe, Arizona.

On February 21st, it will be the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Verdun in World War I. The battle was one of the largest in the war and pitted German troops against French forces on the Western Front. It has been estimated that this single battle led to roughly half a million casualties.

April 1st will mark 25 years since the Warsaw Pact officially dissolved.

April 24th will be the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising in Dublin, which is largely regarded as the pivotal event that led to Ireland’s War for Independence and the establishment of what is now recognized as the Republic of Ireland.

December 26th marks 25 years since Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Chuck Noll retired after four Super Bowl wins, one Super Bowl loss, numerous playoff appearances and coaching a slew of Hall of Fame players.

Of course these are just a few of the kinds of minor and major anniversaries you may hear more about as we get into the year. Some may be marked by nothing more than a news feature, while others could be commemorated through a series of events, programs and advertising. If one of these events means something to you, just mark the date.